We Move to Jojoba Hills

We realize that every traveling day can't be easy and fun. So we took yesterday in stride, even though it was long and difficult.

It started out well. We had everything packed away and were pulling out of our site at 9:30. We filled up our propane tank, refueled with diesel at a nearby gas station, and headed to  California. Unfortunately, my lack of preparation in the planning department rose to bite us in the butt.

Bob and I both have jobs when preparing to get on the road. He handles the outside chores while I handle the inside ones. I'm also the navigator as he usually drives. I've gotten spoiled with easy trips lately; there aren't a lot of road choices, and the GPS just takes us where we want to go. But yesterday there were a lot of choices and most would have been very bad for a 40' motorhome towing a car. Samantha, our Rand McNally GPS (which was already programmed with our rig size) kept trying to take us the fastest way which would have put us on roads with tight corners, switchbacks, and steep hills. The problem was, I was not sure what was the alternative. So we stayed on Rte 8 the whole way, except for when we listened to Samantha and got sidetracked a couple of times before turning around to return to the highway. We ended up adding an extra hundred miles to our trip before all was said and done. We didn't pull into the campground until nearly 4:30.

At one point, faced with signs that warned us of winding roads for the next 79 miles, we u-turned in a farm stand parking lot. The woman at the stand suggested we take Rte 15 north after returning to Rte 8, which ended up being good advice. She looked at our Magic Bus and said, "I could live in that! It's bigger than my house." I smiled and bought some strawberries as a thank-you for the directions.

We felt like we were back in NJ with the highway traffic as we approached 15, and it got worse as we turned north. In Temecula we exited and headed southeast towards the campground on a narrow, winding road with no shoulders and drop-offs at every turn. It was a long fourteen miles to our destination, and as we finally turned off the road a fellow in a pickup truck flipped us the bird while leaning on his horn.

KC the cat had a tough day as well, and had an accident in his carrying case. So he was treated to a "bucket bath" as I dipped his hind end into a bucket of warm water to rinse him off.

But we made it! A couple of friendly Escapees made sure we got into our site and it is beautiful. Our difficult day suddenly took an an about turn as Bob and I sipped a glass of wine by a lime tree next to our seating area.

After a bowl of homemade veggie barley soup with jalapeño cheese stirred in (yum!) we walked to the dog park where Auggie got to play and make new friends. The fellow who parked us offered to give us a formal tour of the facilities on Friday afternoon and after that there's an ice cream social, followed by Happy Hour, followed by a dinner, followed by dancing. Wow! This place sure has a lot of activities! I think we are going to enjoy our stay here.